Public cautioned about fraudulent phone calls

At our monthly meeting on April 16, it was mentioned that members of the public have been unable to reach SAPS. At the end of this article please find all the numbers.

We are pleased to report that, on the whole, the last couple of events held in our town have gone relatively well, which augurs well for more events to be brought here and to have visitors want to return to our beautiful town.

Thanks to the public for notifying visitors to be careful with regards to keeping articles out of sight in vehicles.

Ongoing fraud is still a cause for concern. Please ensure when purchasing items that they are from reputable sources. Don’t pay up front, even if it is a deposit.

These people are unscrupulous and don’t care about your wellmeaning ways. We, myself included, are receiving more and more phone calls from companies, banks, “political parties”, “voters roll” and so on, all wanting to “just verify” our personal information.

Don’t give them anything.

We are noticing that there are more dogs roaming the streets or being lost. The reasons from the owners are varied. It is the responsibility of the owner to ensure their property is properly enclosed.

Dog snatchers, I have experienced it here in Port Alfred, catch the dogs and either sell them for breeding purposes, dog fighting or poaching. We unfortunately don’t have a dog pound in Port Alfred to put stray dogs in. The SPCA doesn’t have the funds to feed and maintain kennels for them.

It is also noted that many crimes are still going unreported. Even if you think that the crime is insignificant, please report it.

We can only increase our local SAPS complement if our local station commander can report to his superiors that because of a very heavy workload, he needs more staff. We need more SAPS members in our area. If you don’t report a crime, don’t complain that it takes a long time to respond to your call: they are severely understaffed.

There are problems with refuse being put out the night before collection. This attracts bin pickers as well as criminals to the area.

The latter suss out the area under the guise of being a bin picker.

Nobody should be wandering around our streets after dark.

A combined CPF-SAPS Information meeting is going to be held soon and we would be pleased if we had a good turnout of residents to air their views and concerns in public, instead of by cellphone messages.

We need the community to be involved in seeing to it that we have a low crime rate in Port Alfred.

This can only happen if we all get involved. 046-604-4700 046-604-4703 046-604-4704

It is also noted that many crimes are still going unreported. Even if you think that the crime is insignificant, please report it